Response:

You really have to go back to the greek translation of the words Malakoi and arsenokoitai and the context of the times to understand this verse. Malakos (the singular of malakoi) means”soft” in ancient Greek. In a moral context it referred to lack of self control, weakness, laziness or cowardice. It was a word used as an insult for anything considered feminine. And to be considered feminine was pretty terrible –it meant being weak and out of control. Malakos did not refer to sexual behavior.

Arsenkoitai is scarcely found in ancient literature and scholars think that it may refer to some form of economic exploitation involving sexual behavior. The sexual behavior may have included same-sex behavior, but it most likely would have been exploitive forms of it such as pederasty.

According to Matthew Vines, “same-sex behavior in the first century was not understood to be the expression of an exclusive sexual orientation. It was understood as excess on the part of those who could easily be content with heterosexual relationships, but who went beyond them in search of more exotic pleasures.” (page 126)

As the words have been translated over time, they have lost their original meaning. Modern day translations refer to homosexual perverts, etc. This shift in translation has had significant consequences according to Matthew Vines,”It fostered the mistaken belief that Paul was condemning a minority group with a different sexual orientation. Instead, he was likely condemning excessive and exploitive sexual conduct.